THERE weren’t many things that scared Jeff anymore. Over the past two months he’d grown accustomed to living on a planet infested with alien monsters. Even when they’d captured him and taken him to the human farm, he’d suppressed his fears. Two very important goals kept him fighting: to avenge his father’s death and to protect his little brother. Since their dad died, he’d felt empowered to take care of David. He was blood, and Jeff would do anything to protect him.
They’d stood in the dark hallway for several minutes now, waiting for Bouma and Kiel to gather the others. Jeff couldn’t see them, but he could hear the other children. Roused from a deep sleep, Jamie and Owen let out soft moans.
“What’s wrong?” David asked.
“Shhhh,” Jeff said. He felt for his brother’s hand and grabbed it, wishing he hadn’t given Bouma their flashlight.
Within minutes the team had gathered in the hallway. The stream of light danced across the corridor, penetrating the darkness of the mess hall.
The beam suddenly flickered.
“Shit,” Bouma said. “Losing its charge.” He tapped the end of the device against the wall, sending an echo vibrating through the Biosphere. As the sound faded a new one emerged—a faint shriek.
Jeff froze.
“Did you hear that?” someone asked.
Bouma waved the light like a sword through the air, scanning the shadows for the source. But Jeff already knew what it was.
The Organics had found them.
“Alexia, are you there?” Emanuel asked.
Jeff picked up on the growing panic in the scientist’s voice and gripped his brother’s hand tighter, his survival instinct kicking in.
They waited in silence. The AI did not respond.
Another screech startled the group. Jeff felt David fall to the floor as someone bumped into them.
“We need to hide!” Holly said.
Bouma turned the light on the group. His features were tense but gave no hint of fear. He looked calm. Composed.
Holly, on the other hand, was panicked. “They found us! We have to hide. Grab the kids. Let’s go!”
The corporal grabbed her hand and said, “Holly, I need you to get it together. For everyone,” he said, illuminating the frightened faces of Owen and Jamie.
She took a deep breath, her hands shaking at her sides.
“We need to get to the control room and grab the RVAMP,” Bouma said. He turned to Emanuel. “You take the kids and Holly to the medical ward. Get Alexia back online and lock the door.” He paused to look at the biologist. “Don’t come out until I tell you.”
Emanuel looked as if he was about to protest, but then grabbed Owen’s and Jamie’s hands, leading them down the hall away from the group.
“Kiel, you’re with me. David and Jeff, go with Holly,” Bouma said. He raised his light from the boys’ faces to hers and then said, “I love you.” She stepped toward him and wrapped him in a hug.
“Heck no, I’m going with you, Corporal. I want to fight!” Jeff blurted.
The man regarded him with a glance and then nodded. “Fine.”
Bouma massaged Holly’s back with several strokes. “It’s going to be okay.” Then he forced her away and said, “You need to go, now.”
Another scream echoed in the distance. Holly took David’s hand and pulled him away. He cried out in protest. “No, I want to stay with Jeff! Don’t take me away from him again!”
Jeff crouched in front of David. “Everything will be fine. I’ll be back in no time.”
David whimpered, “But I want to stay with you.”
Jeff shook his head. “You can’t, I have to go with the marines.”
Bouma concentrated his light on them as they heard another shriek. This one was closer. The aliens were getting deeper into the Biosphere.
David looked up at the corporal. “Is my brother a marine now?”
Bouma cracked a grin, revealing his crooked teeth in the dim light. “Sure, little man, Jeff’s a marine.”
Jeff watched his brother walk behind Holly, Bouma’s light guiding them until they had caught up with Emanuel and the other children. The eleven-year-old found the marine’s strength inspiring. Like Jeff’s dad, Bouma had never once backed down from a fight, and neither would Jeff. With a measured breath he followed Bouma toward the CIC. The time had finally come to fight.
Emanuel stumbled toward the fluorescent red light that marked the med bay. Without the beam from the flashlight he was forced to run his fingers along the wall, towing Owen with his other hand. He could feel his fingers slipping from his grip.
When they finally reached the door, Emanuel fumbled for the handle. The children sobbed next to him, their cries masked by the aliens’ sounds deep inside the Biosphere.
He found the metal knob and burst into the room, ushering the children in with a few motivating tugs. Inside he moved with his hands out in front like a shield. Holly and David followed him.
“We need lights,” she said.
“Working on it,” Emanuel replied. He tripped and fell into his desk, banging his right knee hard on the metal frame. He ignored the jolt of pain and felt the surface until he found his tablet. Relief washed over him when the device warmed to life, spreading a blue light over the room.
Emanuel’s eyes were instantly drawn to Sophie. She lay there asleep, her head still covered by the MindTec.
He rushed over to lock the door and saw Smith’s empty bed.
“Where the hell did she go?” he asked.
Holly was busy trying to calm the children in the other corner of the room and didn’t reply.
Securing the door, Emanuel hurried back to Sophie. She was shaking.
“Oh no,” he whispered, realizing what was happening.
With the power down, the RVM was offline. That’s how the aliens had found them. And if the RVM was offline, then the nanotechnology in Sophie’s blood would finally connect to the surge. The alien tech would have free rein over her body, duplicating and spreading before he could stop it.
Sophie would likely die.
If Bouma used the RVAMP it could kill her—if he didn’t, the aliens would kill everyone inside the Biosphere.
Emanuel felt helpless. He leaned over her bed and whispered in her ear, “Sophie, can you hear me?”
Her eyelids fluttered as if she was trying to open them. She let out a small moan, something that Emanuel couldn’t make out. He reached for her hand, cupped it in his. “Sophie, I need you to wake up.”
She whimpered, her eyelids peeling back just a crack.
Emanuel pleaded with her. “Sophie, please wake up.”
She brought a hand to her head, choking out, “What is it, Emanuel?”
He blinked, unsure if he’d heard her right. “Sophie?” He grabbed her right wrist and squeezed it softly.
“That hurts,” she protested. “Everything hurts.”
“I know,” Emanuel replied. “I’m so sorry.”
“What are you doing?” she asked. Her eyes moved across the dark room, stopping on Holly and the kids. “Where did the lieutenant go? And what are they all doing in here?”
The answer came in the form of a long screech.
Sophie’s eyes widened and shot up to lock with Emanuel’s. “They’ve found us?”
“Please tell me this is a dream.”
He shook his head. “They’re coming.”
Corporal Bouma checked the magazine before jamming it home into his pulse rifle. Fifteen rounds. That was it. And without the electromagnetic pulse grenades he only had enough ammo to piss off the shielded aliens. They would need to use the RVAMP, even if it fried some of the Biosphere’s hardware. They had no choice.
“Shit,” he said. “Jeff, Kiel, what’s your ammo status?”
“Not good,” Kiel replied.
“Me either,” Jeff said.
Bouma looked over their shoulders, through the glass window of the CIC. The ghostly blue glow filled the adjacent hallway, spilling into the room.
Kiel and Jeff saw it at the same time. They shouldered their weapons.
Bouma glanced at the RVAMP lying on the middle work desk. “You know how to work this thing, Kiel?”
The smaller marine limped away from the window and nodded. “Yeah. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I don’t think we have any other choice.”
“Here they come!” Jeff shouted, his voice shaky. The boy took several steps back to join the marines.
Bouma reached for the RVAMP, spinning it on its side. Shrugging his rifle strap onto his shoulder, he leaned over and examined the device.
“You just push the green button,” Kiel said.
“It’s going to severely fuck up the hardware in this place,” Bouma replied. “But it’s either that or we all die.” He exchanged looks with Kiel and then Jeff.
Scratch, scrape, scratch, scrape.
Weeks ago he would have been afraid, but now fear had evolved into something else—anger. He hated the aliens more than any enemy he’d ever faced, and he was not going to let them get to Holly or the kids.
Bouma grabbed the device and cradled it against his chest, watching one of the Spiders emerge in the hallway beyond. Like an apparition, it seemed to hover in a blue mist. His heart fluttered as the Spider tilted its head in his direction.
Not daring to move, Bouma waited, the cold of the RVAMP’s steel leaking through his shirt. In the blink of an eye, the creature’s mandibles parted and unleashed an enraged cry. Then, the alien began barreling down the passage toward him.
The marine knew what came next. Screeching, scratching, and then . . .
Death.
He reached for the green button. He would wait until the Spiders were all inside. Then he was going to fry them. Fry them all.
Emanuel knew they were running out of time. He had to tell Sophie before Bouma used the RVAMP. But how did you tell someone they only had minutes, seconds, to live? He studied her face. He didn’t even know where to begin.
“How did they find us?” Sophie asked, trembling in her bed.
“I don’t know,” Emanuel replied. He lowered his voice so the children wouldn’t hear him. “You’re infected. With the alien nanobots. The same kind that Smith has in her system.”
Sophie didn’t react exactly as Emanuel thought she would. She was still.
He waved his hand in front of her eyes.
She took a deep breath and said, “We don’t have much time, do we?”
He cringed at the statement. Not just because she was right, but because she was brilliant and knew exactly what the implications of infection meant, especially now. He replied simply, choking on the word so it came out in a slur. “No.”
She reached for her head. “I feel a tingling. All through my body. And my head . . .” She paused to claw at some invisible force inside her skull. “This migraine. It’s pulsating. I feel like my head’s going to explode. There’s this humming sound, too. It won’t . . .”
Emanuel reached for her hand, cupping it in his own. “Let’s get this thing off you,” he said. Together they removed the MindTec.
Sophie shook again, curling up into a fetal position.
Without the RVM to stop them, the nanobots were connecting to the invisible surge. He wasn’t sure how long she had before they would take over her body.
A sudden spasm took hold of Sophie and she flopped onto the bed.
“Holly!” Emanuel yelled. “Come help me hold her.” He leaned over and held Sophie’s shoulders down as Holly reached for her feet.
“Oh my god, what’s happening?”
The distant crack of automatic gunfire erupted from the open doorway. The children ducked to the ground, wailing in fear. Emanuel glanced at them and saw Alexia’s interface, remembering he still hadn’t brought her back online.
Everything was happening so fast. He had lost control.
Another volley of gunshots rang out, followed by the children’s screams. Holly whispered something to Sophie that Emanuel couldn’t make out from the foot of the bed.
Sophie struggled under his grip and then stiffened, her eyes staring up at him. “Fire,” she choked, “my body is on fire.”
“Hold on,” Emanuel said, blinking away a tear. He rushed over to the monitors and punched in several commands. He had no idea how to save her, but if anyone could help, it was Alexia.
The computer did not respond to his first attempt. With precision he keyed in a different passcode and the right monitor flickered to life in safe mode.
He’d spent the first night of their mission reading about catastrophic power failures on the NTC-issued tablet, thinking he would never use any of it. Now he was glad he had.
As he punched in several more commands, the AI console chirped to life. Alexia’s image jumped out of its center.
“God, I’m glad to see you,” Emanuel said, exhaling a deep breath.
“Likewise,” she replied. “I’ll take it from here.” Her image disappeared and Emanuel heard the air circulation system click on above them. A second later the AI reemerged.
“We have contacts,” she said quickly, deviating from her normally calm demeanor.
“I know,” Emanuel replied. “Bouma, Kiel, and Jeff have gone to retrieve the RVAMP in the command center.”
“They can’t use that in the Biosphere,” Alexia snapped, her voice growing more frustrated. “It could destroy my hardware. And will also likely kill Doctor Winston.”
He didn’t reply. Instead, he ran to the window that looked out into the hallway. The pale blue light was still weak. Bouma and the others were keeping the Organics at bay. Which meant he still had several minutes.
“Alexia, you’re going to have to shut down. It’s the only way. Power down all the systems.”
“Everything?”
“Everything!” Emanuel replied. He looked over at Sophie. She was curled up again, rocking back and forth as Holly hugged her.
He winced. There was simply no other way. They had to use the RVAMP if they wanted to live. He just hoped her body was strong enough to survive the pulse.
He moved back to her bedside.
“Emanuel,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. For everything.”
“No, no, no,” he replied. “There isn’t anything to be sorry about. You’ve led this team through the unthinkable, and you will survive this, too.” He wanted to believe his own words. Sophie had already survived so much, but this was different. He kissed her forehead. She closed her eyes as if she was savoring the moment.
“I have to go to the CIC and help the others,” he whispered.
“I love you, Emanuel Rodriguez,” she said. The lights flickered off.
“Powering down,” Alexia said.
More gunfire boomed through the Biosphere.
The children wailed louder.
“I love you—” Emanuel started to say, but as he turned back to Sophie she was seizing, her eyes rolled up inside her head, her mouth agape.
“Shit,” he cried. “Hold her, Holly.”
“I am!”
Together they held her down on the bed until her body went limp. The surge was taking over her system faster than he ever imagined. Emanuel knew they were out of time. He rushed out of the room and darted down the hallway, rounding the corner for the CIC. There, in the center of the passage, was a single Sentinel. He froze when it saw him, his shoes sliding across the smooth ground with a rubbery squeak.
The creature’s reptilian eyes blinked, focusing on him. Emanuel took a step back until he was up against the wall. His heart galloped. He had to find a way around the beast.
But where could he go? The hallway led only two ways. Back to the medical ward or toward the other Biomes.
Something flashed behind the creature. A lump formed in his throat. Were there more of them?
A crack from a high-powered rifle brought Emanuel to the ground. Cupping his ears as he lay on the floor, he watched Jeff running at the alien, screaming as he fired his rifle.
The creature let out a deep screech and twisted to face the boy. Its tail curled, coiling and shaking as it prepared to lash Jeff.
“No!” Emanuel yelled, but it was too late. The alien snapped its spiked tail through the air.
Jeff reacted quickly, darting to his right. The tail whistled through the air, slashing his arm and sending his rifle flying.
By the time the weapon hit the ground Emanuel was running. He slipped past the beast and grabbed Jeff, pulling him down the hallway and back into the open door of the CIC where Bouma and Kiel were firing their pulse rifles through the shattered window.
The corporal glanced over at them, his eyes falling on Jeff’s injury.
“We have to use the RVAMP!” Emanuel shouted.
“We have to wait until they’re all in range!” Bouma yelled between shots.
“If we wait any longer we’re all going to die!” Emanuel snapped.
Two Spiders crashed into the wall. Shards of glass rained down from the window’s edges. They recovered quickly, using their long legs to hoist their bodies back into the air. The closest creature smashed into the glass doorway and climbed halfway through, claws thrashing the air with a whoosh inside the CIC.
Bouma ducked under one of the talons and then fired off a quick succession of shots. The blue shield absorbed the rounds, pulsating. Mandibles snapped in protest.
Emanuel crawled toward the RVAMP resting behind Bouma’s boots as shells rained down around him.
Grabbing it, he spun the device to face him. The green button blinked—a full charge, plenty of juice to fry every single one of the bastards. His finger moved toward the control, but he hesitated. He could save the entire team by pushing the small switch. Kill every single Organic in the Biosphere, but maybe also kill Sophie.
He flinched as another pair of Spiders crashed into the wall. Bouma pushed the barrel of his rifle up against their shields and fired, sending the aliens spinning into the darkness.
“What are you waiting for?” Kiel shouted.
Emanuel glanced up just in time to see the humanoid face of the Sentinel peek through the destroyed door, and pushed the button.